


Stolen My Heart

by afteriwake



Series: Mix & Match [4]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: F/M, Idiots in Love, Male-Female Friendship, Mistaken for Being in a Relationship, Molly Hooper Loves Mycroft Holmes, Mutual Pining, Mycroft Holmes Loves Molly Hooper, Operas, POV Alternating, POV Molly Hooper, POV Mycroft Holmes, Sad Molly Hooper, Sad Mycroft Holmes, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-13 07:24:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18027305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: They both want what they think they can't have.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dreamin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamin/gifts).



> An anonymous requester at Tumblr asked for a Mollcroft fic with the trope combination _Mistaken for a Couple & Mutual Pining _, and Dreamin picked it out as a fic for me to write for Molly Madness Month.

“Oh, your husband is rather cute! How long have you been together?”

Molly’s head snapped up from where she had been waiting at the bar for another drink while Mycroft made his way through the assorted dignitaries and politicians at the event. This opera had been special, a politically motivated event, and while Mycroft said normally he took Andrea to events such as this she was preoccupied that evening and he had invited her instead. She had a lovely semi-formal black dress that she now had an excuse to wear and she looked absolutely lovely, so she should have been having the time of her life, shouldn’t she?

She wasn’t, because she knew there was nothing there between them.

Long ago she had given up on being anything more than friends with Sherlock. Even before the end of her engagement with Tom, she had known Sherlock would never be there to take his place. But she had hoped perhaps someone would, but it seemed there was a dry spell, filled with friendly platonic pub dates with Greg, third-wheeling with John and Mary and things like this.

But oh, she had found her feelings for Mycroft changing long ago, back when Sherlock was gone and he was her only tether to how his brother’s journey was doing. They had tea, they had coffee, she shared her Jaffa cakes, he shared his wine...it had been nice. But then Tom had shown an interest and Mycroft had backed off and she had been...sad. 

Sherlock had never been the threat to her relationship with Tom; no, it had been the other Holmes brother who had swept in and stolen her heart out right from under her, and now, at moments like this, when all she wished was she could say they were together…

“Oh, he’s just a friend,” she said with a smile as the bartender handed her a drink. Yes, just a friend...unfortunately.


	2. Chapter 2

“Oh, your wife is quite attractive. How long have you been together?”

The question brought him up short. He had been chatting with a trade minister from Japan when he said those fateful words. Oh, how he wished it was true. He’d had hope, once upon a time, that it could be, but then _he_ had entered the picture and his hopes were dashed. Not his brother; no, there was fondness there but Molly was no longer infatuated with Sherlock.

Tom, the meat dagger as his brother called him, had been the one to ruin everything.

He knew he’d had no claim on her but he had thought, or rather hoped, that as time had gone on and they were nurturing their friendship while Sherlock was on his mission it could have become more. But Tom had been in the wings and whisked her off her feet and he had receded into the background.

He missed their time together, the meals they shared, the conversations they had. It was only moments like this when he was able to give her a convincing reason to join him, that he could pretend that they were more.

And she looked lovely tonight, do lovely, in a simple black dress that covered far more than it showed but left her upper back tantalizingly covered only by a sheer wrap, and her hair pulled into a sleek knot at her neck left her neck bare and gave him thoughts he knew he could never act on.

They were not, after all, a couple.

“Oh, she’s just a friend,” he said with a nod as the man waved over a waiter for them both to get another drink. Yes, just a friend...unfortunately.


End file.
